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What Almost Destroyed Bravo In The Beginning

Know the business side of things when selling your product. It is the number one thing to know when first starting, at least the basics of it. The rest of it will be learned as you go. Know the standard language of money. The standard in what a "profit" is. How an exchange between money and product works. These things will save your business in the beginning. Thanks and enjoy.

 

Transcript:

Guys, know your numbers in business. Know your numbers. Super important, guys. I don't kid around when it comes to business because I know that the last thing I want to do is steer people the wrong way. You know, people ask me, what's the first thing you need to know if you're going to start a business? Know business, know your numbers to a certain extent, right? I mean, how do you know business? Yeah, you can go and get your MBA. I get that. I understand that, but until you put it into practice, you're not really going to understand. Go out there. Google how do I start my business? I've talked about online courses and how they can help. Go out there, spend some time. Spend a little bit of money because I guarantee you guys, if you don't understand the language of money, if you don't understand the business side of things, you may be the best coffee maker out there in the world and you can open up, you know, a company that will go up against our Starbucks or delivering coffee in the mornings, whatever it is, but if you don't know numbers, if you don't know business and the business side of things, that can really hurt you. I know it hurt me in the beginning when I started Bravo. We didn't start dabbling into real numbers, crunching numbers. I'm talking about, you know, return on investment, cost of goods, you know all that stuff. We didn't start doing that until maybe three years into Bravo. Ridiculous, I know. And so there was times where it got a little crazy, and it got a little hairy because we didn't know our numbers. So I learned the hard way. And a lot of times that's probably the best way to learn. 
 
I always listen to people that told me, don't trust the internet. There's a bunch of junk out there. There's a bunch of people out there trying to scam you. All they want is your money. And I remember listening to people telling me that and it kept me from actually going out there and learning, and where I did learn was the internet. That's where I learned, you know, how to run a business as far as the business side of things. And to this day I'm learning. I'm not the expert. I'm not the know-it-all, guys. You know, some of the acronyms out to there, I don't even know what they are, and I just Google stuff when I need to learn something. I don't have a great memory. I don't have, you know, a photographic memory, anything like that. I'm not a whiz kid or anything like that. I'm not a whiz at math or anything, but I know what I need to know. I know percentages. I understand all those things. You know, I understand margins. I understand percentages, numbers, and adding and subtracting, and certain things, right? You don't have to be a math whiz to understand business or to understand money and the language of money. And when I say the language of money is, how do somebody make money? How does somebody make profit from something? You need to understand that. You need to understand if you have a product, whether it's tangible or not, if it's a service or product, if you offer it to somebody and they're willing to pay for it, then obviously there is an exchange there. You need to learn to understand all that. 
 
Goes down to the basics. Don't ever go out there thinking that, well, I don't need to learn this or that, or the other. Remember, if you can't be trusted with the small things, how are you going to be trusted with the big things? It really just comes down to that. You need to understand the smallest things when it comes to business so that you can learn and scale that and really learn the big things in business. And so, it's funny, but I hear a lot of people on the internet, especially like on social media where they say, "Well, I don't understand why they don't do this or they don't do that," or, "I don't understand why Apple doesn't do this," or even Bravo, I'm not comparing ourselves to Apple, but even Bravo consumers, "Why don't they do this or that? Why don't they offer this option or that option?" And it just comes down to the market and it just comes down to business and understanding cost of goods and understanding cost of launching certain products and taking in that cost into the cost of goods and all that, and marketing and a bunch of crazy stuff. 
 
So go out there, learn that stuff, guys. Really, if you wanna start your business. And a lot of things, you're going to learn as you go. Again, you're going to fail. I said that before, failure's a part of success. That's why I can say it guys, because I failed before, but I learned so much from those failures to this day, to this day. We leave money on the table, and not only that we've lost money as well because we've invested in certain things that just didn't pan out for us. And so, you know, you can't go back and take that money back all just because it didn't work out. No, it's not the way it works. That's not the way the world works. So go out there, do your due diligence. Find out what it is that you're gonna do. And take a look at the market. Take a look what's out there. What's the average price of that product that you're going to sell? Who are your competitors? And as far as your competitors, who are they marketing to? What's the demographic that they're marketing to? All that stuff, guys, super important, guys, I'm telling you. Super important. Make sure you know your numbers, make sure that you know business, and you understand the nature of money, and how a profit is derived from a product. Understand all those things, guys, and you're going to be okay, trust me. 
 
You're going to be okay. And at the end of the day, it's all about grinding it out. It's all about putting in your effort. I'm not special. I'm telling you guys, I'm not special at all, guys. And again, I'm not the end all know-it-all, and I'm not the wealthiest guy out... No, by far guys, I'm not. The reason I do this is because when I started, I really wish there were somebody out there talking and saying these things. And there's a lot of people out there saying these things. But they weren't attainable to me because they just weren't...I wasn't doing the research. I wasn't going out there and looking for people like that. But I'll tell you this, there weren't as many as there are now. You know, social media it's gotten to a point where you can pretty much just find anything out there, not just social media, but just the internet, Google itself. So guys, go out there, do your due diligence. Find out what will work for you, AB testing, all that stuff, super important. And you're going to fail, guys. You're going to fail, but it's okay a lot of people fail. Now, that's not a license for you to go out there and do something crazy and ridiculous. That's why you need to go out there and you need to learn these things, study these things. Whatever it is that you're going to get into, whatever market it is that you're going to dive into, study those markets, do your due diligence like I said, guys, and you're going to be okay.
 
Doesn't mean you're not going to get cut, and scraped, and bruised. It's going to happen, guys. But if you can persevere through that then you're going to be okay, guys, trust me, you're going to be okay. If you have a great product and you understand marketing, you understand customer service and all these things, which is the business side of things, you're going to be okay, guys. Trust me, you're going to be okay. Go out there and do it, man, try it. Remember we're living in an era where you can work Monday through Friday, 8 to 5 and you still have 8, 10 hours after you work to go out there and do something, something that you really want to do, something that you're passionate about. You can still go out there and do that. I just hired a guy, man. The guy is a musician, he says, "I leave Bravo, and I go and do my thing. I don't get at home till twelve midnight." That's awesome, man, more power to that guy. That's awesome. So go out there and do it, man. I know people within my circle that are doing it. Go out there and do it. Go get it done.

 

Rene Aguirre

Rene Aguirre is the founder and owner of Bravo Concealment. Rene has been carrying concealed on a daily basis for over 8 years and has been a CHL (concealed handgun license) holder for more than 20 years. Finding a high interest in firearms for many years, Rene started Bravo because of the “lack of” a good concealed carry holster on the market.

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